Lessons of 2010 shape plans for Hawks rally

Thousands cheer on the champion Chicago Blackhawks as they make their way down East Washington Street during their victory parade. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

The sea of jubilant, red-clad hockey fans jammed together at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive in the 2010 Stanley Cup celebration created a lasting image in the annals of the Chicago Blackhawks, but that beautiful and raucous moment raised the blood pressure of police brass tasked with making sure nobody got hurt.

Friday's celebration will look a little different, shaped both by lessons from 2010 and concerns raised by the terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon a little more than two months ago.

At the end of the morning parade, Blackhawks fans — perhaps hundreds of thousands strong — will gather in the wide-open expanses of Grant Park, a setting experts say is better suited to keeping a massive crowd safe while the fans revel in the return of the Stanley Cup to Chicago.

Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said that while there are no known terrorist threats directed at the rally, authorities will take precautions aimed at minimizing any such risk. Fans who enter the fenced perimeter of Hutchinson Field have been discouraged from bringing backpacks, which will be searched, he said. Bomb-sniffing dogs and undercover officers will be working the crowd.

While concerns of attacks like the Boston bombing are a troubling reality for any large public event these days, experts say the more tangible concern for public safety planners is handling a large and boisterous crowd. The unexpectedly huge turnout at the 2010 rally reinforced public safety officials' concerns that the visually stunning setting was a bit too risky.

"You kind of had a man-made canyon there" at Michigan and Wacker, former police Superintendent Jody Weis said. "We argued it would have been better to end in Grant Park."

During that hastily planned parade and rally after the Blackhawks clinched their first Stanley Cup since 1961, police worried that ending the parade in a confined space created all kinds of hazards.

"You had the 'what if' factor. You had little kids there; what if there was a stampede? What if somebody had a medical problem? We had no way to get to them," said Weis, who was running the Police Department at the time.

In the behind-the-scenes discussions at City Hall in 2010, the promise of a spectacular showcase won out over safety concerns from law enforcement, a source familiar with the planning of that event said. This time the parade will end up right where public safety officials want it.

"From my perspective, safety and security comes first, not aesthetics," said Neil Sullivan, a former police commander who coordinated event security for the 2005 White Sox World Series celebration and for President Barack Obama's election night rally in 2008. "I've always been a proponent of Grant Park."

The 2010 Blackhawks rally was a rollicking success, but Weis said police counted themselves very lucky that the worst damage was to flower beds in the street medians. Planners had a hard time anticipating how many people would show up for a hockey celebration after decades of withered enthusiasm for the team.

"We never anticipated 1.2 to 1.3 million people" that day, Weis said. The likely size of the crowd this time may have figured into the decision this week, he said, as well as the obvious concerns stemming from recent events.

"What changed a lot of things this year is Boston," Weis said, referring to the attacks that used bombs concealed in backpacks to kill three people and injure more than 250.

The fact that the Blackhawks defeated the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final only gathers more attention to the issue, Weis said, regardless of whether that dynamic actually plays into security analysis.

"I know that intelligence people at the FBI are working their sources — looking for any threat," said Weis, who spent decades as an FBI agent and supervisor before taking the Chicago superintendent job.

At a news conference on the event planning Wednesday afternoon, McCarthy did not shy away from the Boston comparisons. He said he's had multiple "best practices" conversations with Boston police Commissioner Edward Davis. Talking about the security measures, such as bomb detection dogs and backpack searches, McCarthy called them "very practical steps; nothing extravagant."

There is only so much police can do to control access to the rally, however. While access to Grant Park will be limited to two locations along Michigan Avenue — Jackson Boulevard and Congress Parkway — the parade route will be relatively open. There is a limit to law enforcement's ability to control every risk, McCarthy said.

"That's the price of a free society," he said.

City officials warned fans not to bring alcohol and said any backpacks would be searched, slowing everyone's entrance to the rally. There will be "zero tolerance for alcohol" at the parade and rally, McCarthy said.